Lawsuit challenges Warren Tea Party's ballot proposals

A group of Warren residents want a judge to block the City Council from acting on two election reform proposals spearheaded by the Warren Tea Party and approved by voters last November.

Local activists Eugene Sawyer and Dean Berry, representing Warren Citizens Guarding Government, filed their request in Macomb County Circuit Court on Monday for a temporary restraining order against the city of Warren and the City Council.

The group wants the petitions that were circulated last year to be declared defective and that the ballot question that established council election wards be voided.

But a hearing before Circuit Judge Matthew Switalski was not held Monday afternoon because of a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the courthouse in downtown Mount Clemens.

Advertisement

The group's request was filed on the eve of the deadline for any resident to file as a candidate for City Council, mayor, clerk and treasurer in this year's city election, and marks the latest chapter surrounding the controversial proposals.

Last November, voters amended the Warren City Charter by approving companion ballot proposals reducing the number of council members from nine to seven, with five to be elected from wards and the two remaining "at large" council seats to be filled by voters citywide.

The amendments included formation of a Warren Redistricting Commission, composed of the city attorney, city clerk and Warren's assessor plus two residents appointed by the mayor.

In March, the commission approved five districts for this year's council race:

Three of the districts stretch from Eight Mile Road to 14 Mile Road -- the city's southern and northern borders, respectively. Critics charge that the commissioners who approved the map designed by Warren's planning department failed to meet a key goal: to keep all of the districts compact.

The districts and their general description include:

*District 1: The city's western edge, a 1-mile-wide stretch from Ryan Road to Dequindre, from Eight Mile to 14 Mile Road.

*District 4: The easternmost side of the city, from Schoenherr to Hayes Road, Eight Mile to 14 Mile.

*District 5: Ryan Road to Hoover, from Eight Mile to Stephens Road, plus a narrow stretch that curls around the eastern side of the city of Center Line.

Some council members and other opponents of the Tea Party proposals have argued that state law gives authority to draw district boundaries to the local legislative body only.

Asked about the timing of the request for the temporary restraining order, Sawyer and Berry said their group had held out hope that council members would hire outside attorneys to get a court ruling on who should set the districts.

"That's why we waited as long as we did," Berry told The Macomb Daily.

"That was their responsibility," said Sawyer, 80, who has filed for one of the at-large seats. "They failed in their duty. Somebody had to challenge them."

Both men admit they signed the Warren Tea Party petitions last year, but now claim they were "hoodwinked." They said they favored the reduction in size of Warren's legislative body, but insist they weren't told by petition circulators about the wards system.

Warren Citizens Guarding Government "finds it also patently unfair and constitutionally flawed that the full measure of modification of the City charter sought by the initiatory petition, was not disclosed," according to court documents filed Monday. The group claims that the district map approved by the boundary board and discussed in recent weeks by the council involves gerrymandering "designed solely to entrench certain Council members who are political devotees of the mayor," the court records state.

Warren Tea Party leader Tom Kuettner has said the proposals were designed to save taxpayers money by having fewer council members, and to boost representation of residents who live in the southern half of the city.

All nine of Warren's current council members reside north of 11 Mile Road.

The filing deadline for residents to run in the Aug. 2 primary election is 4 p.m. today.

City planners who defend the wards plan recommended to the Redistricting Commission used the 2000 U.S. Census to draft it. Even after 2010 Census figures were released in late March, city officials said the districts remain close in population - another key directive from the redistricting panel. The districts range in size from 25,832 to 27,990 residents.

Planning Director Ron Wuerth has said he and his staff received "absolutely no political pressure" in drafting the map.

Observers say a wards system makes running for a council seat less expensive, because a candidate campaigning only in their home district can avoid printing and mailing costs they otherwise might have incurred trying to reach voters across the entire city.